Honeysuckle

I love honeysuckle and right now, in HoCo, the honeysuckle is really hitting its stride. It’s not just the scent and the flower that warms my soul it is also the fact that it blooms at one of my most favorite times of year. It is high spring and the temperature is cool but not cold, graduations and weddings are in full swing, the pools are opening and the grass hasn’t turned brown yet. Damn near perfect and, in my book at least, the honeysuckle is the perfect flower for this perfect season.

I spotted this lovely number behind Rita's in Ellicott City. That’s the other thing I like about honeysuckle, it grows pretty much wherever it wants to. In that regard it is much like the deer who reside around us, highly adaptable. It’s also non native which pretty much makes it a cousin of everyone living around here except those with Powhatan, Nanticoke, or some other native tribe in your blood.

As kids we learned how to “eat” honeysuckle by snapping off the end of the flower and slowly removing the stigma hoping to catch a drop of the nectar on our tongues. My daughter enjoys doing that too even though the resultant payoff is rather paltry.

And finally, on a cloudy day such as today, the honeysuckle is still yellow and white like a sunny day and just as sweet.